The Southall ever after festival–what COVID-19 taught us about community, research and funding

Abstract

This article discusses the impact of COVID-19 on a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) research project.1 The focus of the research, in its original iteration, was cultural heritage and identity within Indian diasporic communities across India and within the UK. In March 2020, four weeks into the project, work was suspended as the UK went into lockdown, with India following shortly after. When the project restarted in May 2021 in the UK, although not in India, projected outcomes had changed radically from the original proposal as the vacuum created by COVID-19 encouraged participants to take control of the process. Guided by participants the project expanded beyond the South Asian diaspora to encompass the diversity of Southall. This revealed far more nuanced attitudes towards cultural heritage and challenged the notions of dual identities in the original proposal, resulting in a more complex account of identifications across communities. This article contends that these findings would not have occurred if participants with an investment in the process had not led the research and calls for a shift from output-driven research to research with an emphasis on process in future participatory arts and humanities-funded projects.